This research investigated teachers'perceptions, understandings and implementation of education standards in elementary and primary schools in Papua New Guinea. The main research question and two sub-questions were designed to explore teachers' perceptions and understanding of national standards. This exploration engaged teachers in identifying factors which they believed influenced their professional work. This study also explored stakeholders' perceptions of teachers' interpretations of national education standards. This study adopted social constructivist epistemology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnographic case study methodology. This provided the basis for its theoretical framework to purposefully understand human interactions within their culture and context. Social constructivism accommodates situated learning, a conceptual framework which was adapted to interrogate understanding and implementation of national education standards. A variety of research methods were used to elicit teachers' and stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of their professional world. These methods included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, documentary analysis, field notes and observations. Most of the focus group discussions engaged participants to "tell their stories", thus storytelling became an avenue for eliciting teachers' and stakeholders'perceptions. Workshops conducted for teachers became another important strategy for data collection. Two schools, one rural and one urban, became case studies to understand national education standards as an external phenomenon. A total of 595 participants were involved in this study including teachers and pupils, parents and community members, school board members, members of curriculum committees, and policy makers. The study found numerous contextual factors influenced teachers' understandings, interpretation and implementation of standards at the school level. Foremost, teachers' own knowledge of formal education standards was deficient thus influencing their commitment to and enthusiasm in their professional work. Teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical skills influenced their ability to translate content standards into clear benchmarks for pupils' learning. The absence of effective monitoring systems of teachers' performance contributed to pupils' superficial assessment reports and of uncoordinated mastery of subject content and performance skills. The absence of effective school leadership affected teachers' commitment, attitudes and professionalism. This generated a culture of isolationism acute in both schools. Teachers were performing to hierarchically externally imposed requirements, and in the process, overlooked essential knowledge and skills that were needed to improve quality of students' learning. The national education standards are an inherited policy from the colonial administration. This study found that successful implementation of education standards is highly dependent on the social and cultural expectations of Papua New Guinea's rapidly changing society. At the local level, education standards are highly influenced by teachers' professionalism, provincial education boards and community expectations. This is compounded by the mismatch of priorities and policies between the national and provincial education divisions. Such a practice impacts negatively on the successful implementation of educational reform agendas. The study implies that a reconsideration of national education standards is necessary. This process will involve a rethinking of teacher education programmes, dismantling previous assumptions of national standards and local implementation, and accommodating challenges presented by economic, political, social and cultural change in Papua New Guinea.

With the maturation of the child custody investigative process, the role of investigators and the process of these investigations have come under increasing scrutiny. The investigators are expected to be objective, neutral, and professional while following procedures that conform to model standards. However, this assumption of a lack of bias has been largely overlooked in the literature regarding the investigative process. It is assumed that investigators should self-monitor to ensure that their stance is objective and neutral. Furthermore, this position of neutrality and objectivity is assumed to be intuitive and natural. By using a case study, this thesis investigates and describes the process of a child custody investigation predicated on a constructivist epistemology. It highlights the impossibility of any investigator to be objective and neutral in any investigation automatically, regardless of the procedures and methods employed. The thesis highlights the participant observer status of investigators. An aim of the thesis is thus to sensitise investigators to this inevitable vulnerability with the expectation that such an awareness may allow investigators to establish processes to render investigations consciously more balanced, considered, and transparent. A further aim is to describe a child custody evaluation from an eco-systemic perspective by contextualising the investigation in the larger ecosystem to which it belongs. This description includes the investigation as part of an evolving problem-determined system. An awareness of this wider and evolving context may enable investigators to approximate a position of objectivity and neutrality more effectively. It may also act as an inoculation against the ‘contamination’ of the investigator by the investigative system. With the maturation of the child custody investigative process, the role of investigators and the process of these investigations have come under increasing scrutiny. The investigators are expected to be objective, neutral, and professional while following procedures that conform to model standards. However, this assumption of a lack of bias has been largely overlooked in the literature regarding the investigative process. It is assumed that investigators should self-monitor to ensure that their stance is objective and neutral. Furthermore, this position of neutrality and objectivity is assumed to be intuitive and natural. By using a case study, this thesis investigates and describes the process of a child custody investigation predicated on a constructivist epistemology. It highlights the impossibility of any investigator to be objective and neutral in any investigation automatically, regardless of the procedures and methods employed. The thesis highlights the participant observer status of investigators. An aim of the thesis is thus to sensitise investigators to this inevitable vulnerability with the expectation that such an awareness may allow investigators to establish processes to render investigations consciously more balanced, considered, and transparent. A further aim is to describe a child custody evaluation from an eco-systemic perspective by contextualising the investigation in the larger ecosystem to which it belongs. This description includes the investigation as part of an evolving problem-determined system. An awareness of this wider and evolving context may enable investigators to approximate a position of objectivity and neutrality more effectively. It may also act as an inoculation against the ‘contamination’ of the investigator by the investigative system. xviii In South Africa, we have yet to formulate a document that establishes a model standard of practice or specific, dedicated training in this area. This thesis identifies what could be included in both areas (in addition to the expected protocols and procedures) by describing the investigator’s position as an expert learner, rather than just an ‘expert’. In line with current literature, it highlights the benefits of thinking consciously and in a considered manner. Furthermore, it indicates the benefits of a team approach to investigations, which could be considered an area for further investigation. In South Africa, we have yet to formulate a document that establishes a model standard of practice or specific, dedicated training in this area. This thesis identifies what could be included in both areas (in addition to the expected protocols and procedures) by describing the investigator’s position as an expert learner, rather than just an ‘expert’. In line with current literature, it highlights the benefits of thinking consciously and in a considered manner. Furthermore, it indicates the benefits of a team approach to investigations, which could be considered an area for further investigation. / Psychology / D. LITT et. Phil. ( Psychology)

Ce mémoire est une mise à jour philosophique du modèle conceptuel défini par Aloïs Riegl dans son ouvrage sur Le culte moderne des monuments. Pour faire cet aggiornamento, nous présentons dans une première partie ce modèle et l'énigme qu'il contient. Dans la deuxième, nous décrivons le paradigme que les premières communautés patrimoniales adoptèrent dans l'Entre-Deux-Guerres pour la résoudre, puis nous introduisons dans la troisième les concepts qui ancrent leur paradigme dans le monde actuel et nous formulons l'énigme qu'il pose maintenant aux professionnels. Historiquement, nous démontrons ainsi la continuité de l'institution patrimoniale, d'A. Riegl à nos jours. En dépouillant les archives de la Commission internationale de Coopération intellectuelle, nous prouvons que l'ONU et l'UNESCO n'ont pas créé les réseaux de conservation que nous connaissons, mais ont hérités de ceux que la SDN et la CICI tissèrent avant-guerre en fédérant les institutions et les associations qui existaient alors. Philosophiquement, nous mettons au jour le fondement ontologique et épistémologique de l'institution patrimoniale en étudiant différents modèles conceptuels. Nous expliquons comment le réalisme structural peut concilier les théories réalistes et constructivistes qui pourraient s'opposer ici et comment l'approche processus permet d'unifier ses secteurs sans nier les différences de nature qui existent entre ses objets. Notre thèse est que l'on peut modéliser le domaine en interconnectant les points de vue de ses acteurs. Pour l'établir, nous répondons à la question de savoir ce qu'est le patrimoine, comment fonctionne son institution et sur quoi se fonde sa conservation. / This doctoral thesis on epistemology of conservation is a philosophical update of the conceptual model defined by Alois Riegl in his book on The Modern Cult of Monuments. The first part presents the model and its riddle in order to perform this aggiornamento. The second part describes the paradigm adopted by the first heritage communities between the two world wars in their attempt to resolve it. The third part introduces the concepts that connect their paradigm with the present world and formulate the riddle challenging current professionals. The author proves the historic continuity of the heritage institution from A. Riegl to our days. By examining the archives of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC), he demonstrates that the UN and UNESCO didn't create the heritage networks that we know today but that they originate from the networks of institutions and associations organized by the League of Nations and ICIC before World War I. Philosophically, he brings to light the ontological and epistemological foundation of the heritage institutions by studying several conceptual models. He explains how structural realism can reconcile realism with constructivism, even as they seem to be opposite theories, and alson how the processus approach can unify its parts without negating the differences of nature between its objects. His thesis is that almost all of the domain can be modelized by interconnecting the points of view of all its actors. To establish this point, he answer the following questions : what is heritage ? How does its institution function ? What is its conservation funded upon ?

This dissertation explores the integration of Buddhism and the practice of mindfulness into Western psychotherapy, starting with a sketch of the cultural and historical factors that shaped the beginnings of these institutions, and gives consideration to some of the major themes that have influenced the development of both psychotherapy and Buddhism which have given rise to the current proliferation of interest in Buddhism and mindfulness in the West. A secondary objective is to give voice to the obstacles, criticisms and concerns that have challenged the integration of Buddhism in the West, particularly in the amplification of mindfulness practices, which in having been appropriated into Western culture, have met with consumerism, competition and a culture of narcissism, all of which have subjected the practice of mindfulness to commodification and commercialisation. A revisiting of the original practices of Theravāda Vipassanā meditation to gain a deeper understanding of its original practices opens discussion around how Buddhism could then be selectively adapted, modified and reinterpreted to fit in with mainstream Western psychology, not as a religion, or as a philosophy, but rather as psychotherapy with a defined model and categorisation within a constructivist postmodernist epistemology. A third objective is to critically explore a detailed application of mindfulness as it is currently being applied alongside existing Western psychotherapy to ascertain its true efficacy in a clinical therapeutic context. Finally this dissertation highlights the need to move beyond the Eurocentrism in psychoanalysis by the automatic, unquestioning pathologising and marginalisation of religion and spirituality on the one hand; to the other of Orientocentrism as deification and idealisation of religion and the spiritual quest, on the other hand. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

With the maturation of the child custody investigative process, the role of investigators and the process of these investigations have come under increasing scrutiny. The investigators are expected to be objective, neutral, and professional while following procedures that conform to model standards. However, this assumption of a lack of bias has been largely overlooked in the literature regarding the investigative process. It is assumed that investigators should self-monitor to ensure that their stance is objective and neutral. Furthermore, this position of neutrality and objectivity is assumed to be intuitive and natural. By using a case study, this thesis investigates and describes the process of a child custody investigation predicated on a constructivist epistemology. It highlights the impossibility of any investigator to be objective and neutral in any investigation automatically, regardless of the procedures and methods employed. The thesis highlights the participant observer status of investigators. An aim of the thesis is thus to sensitise investigators to this inevitable vulnerability with the expectation that such an awareness may allow investigators to establish processes to render investigations consciously more balanced, considered, and transparent. A further aim is to describe a child custody evaluation from an eco-systemic perspective by contextualising the investigation in the larger ecosystem to which it belongs. This description includes the investigation as part of an evolving problem-determined system. An awareness of this wider and evolving context may enable investigators to approximate a position of objectivity and neutrality more effectively. It may also act as an inoculation against the ‘contamination’ of the investigator by the investigative system. With the maturation of the child custody investigative process, the role of investigators and the process of these investigations have come under increasing scrutiny. The investigators are expected to be objective, neutral, and professional while following procedures that conform to model standards. However, this assumption of a lack of bias has been largely overlooked in the literature regarding the investigative process. It is assumed that investigators should self-monitor to ensure that their stance is objective and neutral. Furthermore, this position of neutrality and objectivity is assumed to be intuitive and natural. By using a case study, this thesis investigates and describes the process of a child custody investigation predicated on a constructivist epistemology. It highlights the impossibility of any investigator to be objective and neutral in any investigation automatically, regardless of the procedures and methods employed. The thesis highlights the participant observer status of investigators. An aim of the thesis is thus to sensitise investigators to this inevitable vulnerability with the expectation that such an awareness may allow investigators to establish processes to render investigations consciously more balanced, considered, and transparent. A further aim is to describe a child custody evaluation from an eco-systemic perspective by contextualising the investigation in the larger ecosystem to which it belongs. This description includes the investigation as part of an evolving problem-determined system. An awareness of this wider and evolving context may enable investigators to approximate a position of objectivity and neutrality more effectively. It may also act as an inoculation against the ‘contamination’ of the investigator by the investigative system. xviii In South Africa, we have yet to formulate a document that establishes a model standard of practice or specific, dedicated training in this area. This thesis identifies what could be included in both areas (in addition to the expected protocols and procedures) by describing the investigator’s position as an expert learner, rather than just an ‘expert’. In line with current literature, it highlights the benefits of thinking consciously and in a considered manner. Furthermore, it indicates the benefits of a team approach to investigations, which could be considered an area for further investigation. In South Africa, we have yet to formulate a document that establishes a model standard of practice or specific, dedicated training in this area. This thesis identifies what could be included in both areas (in addition to the expected protocols and procedures) by describing the investigator’s position as an expert learner, rather than just an ‘expert’. In line with current literature, it highlights the benefits of thinking consciously and in a considered manner. Furthermore, it indicates the benefits of a team approach to investigations, which could be considered an area for further investigation. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. ( Psychology)